Ruth 1:19-22 – “The Ruth Beside Me”

As always, here’s my fairly literal translation of these verses:

¹⁹And they went both of them until they coming into Bethlehem. And it was when they coming into Bethlehem. And the all of the city was moved because of them. And they said, “This Naomi?” ²⁰And she said to them, “Do not call me Naomi. Call me Marah, because Shaddai has caused me to be very bitter. ²¹I, I went full and the LORD has caused me to come back empty. Why do you call me Naomi and the LORD has crushed me and Shaddai has caused to hurt me?” ²²And she returned, Naomi and Ruth the Moabitess her daughter-in-law with her, one returning from the fields of Moab. And they came into Bethlehem in [the] beginning of [the] harvest of barley.

I want to record another observation before leaving this passage. There is one thing I see in Naomi that reminds me so much of me. Think about it. Here she is at the lowest point of her human existence. I’ve already pondered her situation and I hope I have seriously tried to sympathize with the very deep grief and loss she has dealt with. Her seeming bitterness is very understandable and, as I said earlier, I am quite confident the Lord could handle it and that it was in the end all an expression of what was actually a strong relationship she had with Him.

But, all that said, she is still, humanly speaking, in a very dejected, discouraged, seemingly hopeless state in her life. She does speak like a hopeless person. I don’t doubt at all that, in spite of her relationship with the Lord, she feels her world a very dark place. She feels crushed and abandoned. She doesn’t see any light at the end of her tunnel.

I think we can all relate to where she is at this point. We’ve all felt it. I’ve certainly never been hit as hard as she has but I know those same feelings and I think we all do.

But there is one thing she is missing. There is something we are all missing in those moments. In her case, it is standing right beside her. It is her Ruth. Naomi says, “I went full and the LORD has caused me to come back empty.” That is how she feels and understandably so, but is it true? Is she “empty?” Obviously not. In her deep grief, she cannot see that one of the Lord’s richest blessings is standing right beside her. In the depth of her losses, she is not seeing that, standing right beside her, right there with her, there is a gift from the very Lord she feels has abandoned her. The Hebrew says, “And they went both of them …And she returned, Naomi and Ruth the Moabitess her daughter-in-law with her …”  

Isn’t that so much like all of us? When we suffer losses, when we get down, it is so easy to only see the negative and completely miss the blessing that may be standing right beside us.

I guess my prayer would be that the Lord would help me, when I’m down or when I suffer losses, that I would remember Naomi, and maybe, just maybe, remember to lift up my eyes and look around and perhaps actually see that blessing right beside me. I’m sure it’s probably always there, if we but had eyes to see it. I’m sure sometimes it really is a Ruth – a person God has given us like an angel in our hour of need. Or perhaps it is some other provision, some blessing we haven’t noticed. But God give us eyes to see. With Him we’re never “empty.”

I feel sorry for poor Naomi and her grief is totally understandable, but I wish she could have looked and realized what we see – that this Ruth standing beside her was a blessing from God, that she was not “empty.” Perhaps it might have encouraged her heart even just a little and given her a measure of joy in the midst of her pain.

Lord give us eyes to see the Ruths beside us.

One last “for whatever it’s worth” – having said all of this, I do not in any way mean to suggest that somehow Ruth “made up” for Naomi’s losses. Ruth is a great blessing to her, again, an angel from God. But nothing could ever fill the holes in Naomi’s heart. This poor woman buried her husband and her (only) two sons. Death alone will free her heart from the pain she lives with day and night. No relationship on earth will ever “replace” what she has lost and we shouldn’t be thinking of Ruth that way. I know later on the women of Bethlehem ask her, “Isn’t Ruth better than seven sons?” There may be some measure of truth in that question, but, once again, Naomi doesn’t want seven sons. She wants her husband and her two sons. Ruth can’t fill that hole. She can only be another source of love and blessing in Naomi’s life. I would suggest it is true that no relationship is “replaceable.” Each one is a jewel all its own. We should never try to “replace” anyone. We need to simply be the jewel we can be in someone else’s life. And we need to appreciate each jewel God gives us completely in and of itself.

Sometimes when a child loses a pet, we adults say things like, “We should give them another one to ‘replace’ the one they lost.” Wouldn’t it be better to say to them, “You really loved your pet and he loved you. You’ll always remember him. But perhaps there’s another doggie out there that needs your love. Maybe there’s another doggie out there that wishes someone loved him like you loved yours. What would you think of seeing if we can find him?”

Just an idea, but thought it worth throwing in while I’m thinking about it all.

May the Lord fill your life with love!